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Quantum-Computing Approach Uses Single Molecules as Qubits for First Time


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Quantum entanglement is one of the effects that underpins quantum-computing technology

Both studies used arrays of optical tweezers with one molecule trapped in each tweezer unit.

Credit: Peter Jurik/Alamy

Two teams of researchers have separately made pairs of calcium monofluoride molecules interact so that they became entangled, a necessity for quantum computers to perform algorithms.

Both teams used arrays of laser devices called optical tweezers, with one molecule trapped in each tweezer unit.

Through laser techniques, they cooled the molecules to temperatures just above absolute zero, at which point the molecules are close to being completely still and can be manipulated.

Both teams used non-rotating molecules to represent the ‘0’ state of their qubits, and rotating ones to represent the ‘1’.

Calcium monofluoride is highly polar, and the researchers coaxed two molecules to interact by ‘feeling’ each other’s positive and negative poles.

Explained Harvard University's John Doyle, “The dipolar interaction of molecules gives us an extra tuning knob."

From Nature
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Abstracts Copyright © 2023 SmithBucklin, Washington, D.C., USA


 

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